There
have been rather few new Playstation game releases that I’ve been looking forward
to over the last six months. Maybe my tastes have become refined since starting
to write for Just Adventure, or perhaps, with the upcoming release of the Playstation
2, fewer developers are trying hard to bring good games to an aging and soon-to-be-obsolete
piece of hardware. When I heard that MediEvil II had been released, I hightailed
over to the store to check it out, hoping to end the PSX drought. Unfortunately,
I found that MediEvil II is simply a slicker rehash of the original, with
control problems that continue to plague the series.

What’s
Going on Here?

The plot in MediEvil II is so similar to that
of MediEvil that … well, I’ll describe both plots in the paragraph below.
Read the first set of words in parentheses to get the plot of the original game,
and read the second set of words to learn about the sequel.

At the beginning
of (MediEvil/MediEvil II), our hero, Sir Daniel Fortesque, is peacefully
enjoying his postmortem rest in the year (1386/1886) when (the wizard Zarok/Lord
Palethorn) casts a spell that raises the dead, with the intention of using these
undead legions to take over the world. Dan must defeat these foes in (Gallowmere/England),
gaining new weapons and skills from (the Hall of Heroes/Professor Hamilton Kilt’s
laboratory) by retrieving the Chalice of Souls on each level. Additionally, Dan
will eventually learn how to (perform a Daring Dash/use the DanHand) to reach
previously inaccessible areas.

See what I mean? Maybe this comparison isn’t
doing the new game justice, but it really is the same game in a different era.

Overall
Plot Grade: B

How
Did it Look?

MediEvil II’s in-game graphics are very, very good.
Sir Dan’s animation has definitely improved since the last game, with very smooth
motion and very nice detail (understanding, of course, that this game is on the
Playstation, so there’s a limit to what can be accomplished). There is so much
detail, in fact, that you can easily miss some of the neater effects because there
is so much going on. Take DanHand, for example. Running around as DanHand shows
an animated green hand, in the grand tradition of “Thing” from The
Addams Family, traversing obstacles with frantically moving fingers, all the
while supporting Dan’s monocular skull. Turn in a circle, however, and the hand
will spin on its thumb, just as you would expect. The game’s environments are
very solid, with virtually no graphics errors to speak of. In the same goofy theme
as the game itself, the levels are perfect reflections of the game’s silly nonsensical
attitude, in a sort of Tim Burton-esque manner.

There are two issues that
I do have with the graphics in MediEvil II. The first one, pretty minor
in the grand scheme of things, has to do with the motions of the characters in
the rendered movies that play during the game–the actions seem very unnatural,
almost as if the modeling parameters were incorrectly set to represent something
other than normal human actions. The biggest graphics problem, though, is the
use of repetitive loops of animation by the minor characters in the game, like
the Professor, Winston the (bloody irritating) help ghost, etc. Winston, in particular,
sticks out as being poorly animated. At strangely random points in his conversations
with Dan, Winston will lean over as if whispering something to you, while his
voice stays just as loud as ever. I can understand why this was done–you don’t
want these characters just standing (or, rather, floating) there, since that’s
pretty boring. I would have appreciated a little bit of lip-synching, or even
better, synching of the words being spoken and the animation of the character.
The way it plays right now, it just looks plain dumb.

Overall Graphics
Grade: A-

How
Did it Sound?

As with just about everything in MediEvil II, the
musical score is a perfect fit with the game’s atmosphere. The music reflects
each level’s theme perfectly. The Freakshow level, in particular, has music so
fitting with the carnival motif that I can’t imagine anything else playing in
the background. Perhaps this is the best time to say it–MediEvil II has
taken a good idea and made it great by following through with every aspect of
the game’s experience. (If the controls were easier to deal with, this would be
an instant classic. See the section below.) For example, as you would expect,
the sound of Dan’s footsteps changes depending on what the surface he’s walking
on is made of. Just what you would expect. Dan’s jawless mumbling is a perfect
fit with the game. The sounds made by the different weapons and creatures in the
game are also … you guessed it, just what you would expect.

There is one
part of the auditory experience that was not what I expected, and that was the
voice acting. I already mentioned that Dan’s nearly unintelligible speech was
great, and I also think that the voice of the professor was very well-done. But
the other characters in the game? Stinkeroonie. Did you notice the (bloody irritating)
remark when I mentioned Winston before? I actually stopped talking to Winston
about a third of the way through the game because I simply couldn’t stand his
accent and volume control issues. I know he’s supposed to be a young boy from
mid-1800s England, but give me a break. As well, Lord Palethorn’s noble voice-overs
did not fit at all with his new beastly demonic look. I really can’t believe that
the folks at Sony decided to use this particular actor for this part. His acting
skills were okay, but when the face and the voice don’t go together, it has a
very negative impact on the story being told.

Overall Sound Grade: B+

Was
it Fun?

MediEvil II trips and very nearly falls in terms of fun
gameplay. There’s no doubting the fact that this game is fairly difficult, but
that’s not the problem. There are two painful problems with the game that were
almost enough to get me to give up completely. Here’s the troubles, in vivid detail.

Inadequate
Save System–There are simply not enough places to save your game in MediEvil
II. Perhaps I should explain how I play console games–I usually play for
about an hour a day, in the mornings before I go to my real job. Sometimes I go
back to it in the evenings, if I’m having a particularly good time with it or
having trouble getting past a hard section. My problem is–and maybe this is my
problem and others don’t care–I like to save my game when I feel like it, so
I can go take care of other things in my life that are more important. I don’t
like having to jump right into a boss fight, without saving, after spending 45
minutes getting to that point. I want to take a break, think about strategy, and
not worry about my poor old Playstation overheating. I don’t like to replay sections
of the game that I found particularly difficult, and I found myself doing this
repeatedly since I was unable to save my game when I felt like it. Don’t get me
wrong–I understand that memory is limited on the save game cards, and that these
levels are pretty large, but there has to be a way. I’d be happy to sacrifice
more slots for this ability.

Frustrating Control Scheme–I remember
playing the original MediEvil and becoming positively irate after attempting
to make a seemingly simple jump for the fourth time and plummeting to my death.
Yet I stuck with it and hoped that if there were ever a sequel, the developers
would find a way to deal with this problem. Unfortunately, they did not. It’s
still notoriously difficult to line Dan up for a simple jump, and there are parts
in the sequel that might actually be harder, simply because the camera moves at
inopportune times. Controlling Dan is very much like one of the control schemes
in Grim Fandango–pushing forward on the keypad or analog joystick makes
Dan move away from the camera, pushing right makes him move towards the right
side of the screen, etc. This becomes a problem when the camera changes view angles
automatically, which in turn changes the direction that Dan moves. You can only
imagine how frustrating it is to push in one direction to jump over a gap in a
ledge, only to fall to your doom because the camera angle changed in mid-jump,
while you continued to push in the same direction. It is also extremely easy to
walk off of ledges–a scheme like Tomb Raider, where walking implies that
you cannot fall down, would have been much appreciated in MediEvil II. One
final note: I dropped the gameplay grade a full letter because Sony committed
the biggest faux pas possible–the printed instructions incorrectly list certain
key combinations that are critical for getting past the “Dankenstein”
sequence, which almost resulted in me taking out my anger on the controller. (This
is now my Official Biggest Gripe, similar to another reviewer’s dislike of mazes.
Until further notice, if I review a game where the instructions incorrectly document
the controls, it will drop one full letter grade in the gameplay section. Fair
warning …)

If you look past these two dismal failures, MediEvil
II is a pretty entertaining time-sink. The goals of each level vary widely
and require careful thought, which are definitely game qualities that I’d like
to see more often. There’s plenty of variety in the available weaponry and the
bad guys, which I’m also very fond of. I can only imagine the sales figures if
these problems had been addressed …

Overall Gameplay Grade: C-

Close,
but no cigar. I hate to see a game come close to greatness, only to fail in an
area that probably could have been fixed had the game’s release been delayed by
a month or two. Still, if you’ve dealt with the control issues in the first game
and have no problem playing for long stretches without the ability to save, MediEvil
II is a good game to keep you going until the Playstation 2 comes out. If
you have any doubts about your hand-eye coordination, you’d do best finding something
else to play.

Final Grade: B